{"id":2961,"date":"2012-03-20T09:12:12","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T13:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=2961"},"modified":"2012-03-20T09:19:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T13:19:34","slug":"kennett-twp-discusses-conduct-policy-task-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=2961","title":{"rendered":"Kennett Twp. discusses conduct policy, task forces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dialogue regarding new meeting conduct policies and the proposed\u00a0 task forces in the Township reveals divisions between supervisors<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By P.J. D\u2019Annunzio<\/strong>, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chairman Michael Elling presented two tentative proposals pertaining to meeting conduct and citizen task forces Monday night.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT \u2014 Following the raucousness of an emotional citizenry during last month\u2019s public meeting, Chairman Michael Elling brought forth a proposed, modified code of conduct for all meeting participants at Monday night\u2019s BOS meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of surrounding townships have similar policies that amplify our own, and I have tried to impress the comments from other townships into a revised one for ourselves,\u201d Elling said. \u201cLet me explain one of the reasons I\u2019ve done this\u2026I was terribly uncomfortable with the conduct of [the previous public meeting]. There was a lot of cross talking; a lot of interruptions, and it didn\u2019t seem to serve a useful purpose. So the attempt here is to get more structure into the meeting”<\/p>\n

Elling stated that the new edicts were not set in stone, stating “If this doesn’t work, we’ll change it.”<\/p>\n

Some of the regulations in the new code of conduct policy include granting the chairman the authority to impose a time limit on speakers in order to ensure that all residents have a chance to speak. However, each questioner will only be able to address the person who nominated the agenda subject.\u00a0 The chairman may terminate a speaker\u2019s presentation if dialog is considered inappropriate, non-germane, argumentative, repetitive, or pointless. If the chairman deems the speaker to be unruly or disruptive, that individual may be requested to leave or face legal action. The policy states that questions and comments may be limited to \u201cbona fide\u201d Township residents or businesses only.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to object to that Mr. Chairman,\u201d Supervisor Scudder Stevens said in response to the reading of the policy. \u201cFirst of all, in the work session we had last week, it was agreed by all three of us that we would schedule a time when we could talk about this and reach an understanding as to what it contained, and then send it to Bob Adams for a legal review. We\u2019ve yet to have that meeting, we\u2019ve yet to discuss it, and Adams has not reviewed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, stating, \u201cI\u2019m quite concerned about, to quote you, why \u2018I\u2019ve\u2019 done this and \u2018we will change it.\u2019 There is a distinction between \u2018I\u2019 and \u2018we.\u2019 I think that this is something that the whole Board should be acting upon and so I oppose. I would also like to say that I think it\u2019s unconstitutional because it attempts to control the free expression of the citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chairman Elling suggested that Stevens review the subject on his own, but was interrupted by Township Manager Lisa Moore, who stated that procedure requires that the supervisors meet to discuss the issue. \u201cBob [Hammaker] and I have met to discuss the existing policy,\u201d Elling said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kennett supervisor Scudder Stevens objected to a new code of conduct and new task forces, saying that he and his colleagues had yet to talk about either proposal in detail.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you see Michael, that\u2019s part of my problem,\u201d Stevens replied. \u00a0\u201cWe agreed that we would all do this, and now you tell us that Bob and you have met to give it to us, and if I\u2019d like to look at it after the fact, \u2018knock yourself out.\u2019 I am very much opposed to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The supervisors then agreed that the matter should be tabled until all could find time to deliberate further. The focus of the meeting shifted to the proposed formation of citizen-staffed task forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know there was an idea to form a series of task forces populated by people in the township to report and discuss findings that pertain to a series of particular subjects,\u201d Elling said. \u201cOne of them was for the audit; the other was for the financial condition and policies of the township, and there are three others. The attempt was to try to get a cross-section of people to man these task forces\u2026representing the population as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has certainly been some contention about a number of things in the township, principally the audit, and to shed light on the entire subject, the task force was thought to be a way of looking into the issues and reporting on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal was quickly met with resistance, again from Supervisor Stevens, who stated, \u201cAt that work session the three of us agreed to check our schedules and set a time to talk through the details of this. There was a lot of discussion at the work session, trying to understand it, to determine what the ground rules were, who was going to serve, what their parameters were, what the deadlines were for when the task forces would be resolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob Hammaker and I suggested that one of the things we could do is compress three different headings into one (audit, taxes, and budget) but you didn\u2019t agree with that, and we never had an opportunity to resolve any of the questions we had, including the time in particular when we were going to resolve this,\u201d he continued. \u201cWhen it was all over, you got up and turned the lights off while I was sitting there. It didn\u2019t end in a cooperative fashion and we\u2019re left here with what I would suggest is a half-baked proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevens reiterated his desire for the Supervisors to meet and discuss the nature of the proposed task forces in greater depth.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsofar as trying to get together to scope out the conditions of these task forces, we talked about that,\u201d Elling responded. \u201cYou, Bob, and I did talk about that. We came to the conclusion that there was no mission statement needed for them. It was important that they establish it themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou decided that,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cI did not agree to that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

A decision on how to proceed with matter was put off until a later date, pending further review by the Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dialogue regarding new meeting conduct policies and the proposed\u00a0 task forces in the Township reveals divisions between supervisors By P.J. D\u2019Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com KENNETT \u2014 Following the raucousness of an emotional citizenry during last month\u2019s public meeting, Chairman Michael Elling brought forth a proposed, modified code of conduct for all meeting participants at Monday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[266,183,36],"class_list":["post-2961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-audit","tag-board-of-supervisors","tag-kennett-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}